One of the best parts of working in the "agency" world is you get to look at the whole world of media opportunistically. An integrated swarming mass of interestingness. You are unbiasedly drawn to areas of innovation and effectiveness, regardless who brings them to you, while intertwining it with something old but effective hopefully trying to use an old medium in new ways. There are some amazing things going on right now.
Below, in no particular order is a list of things that really caught my eye. With a bit of bias to stuff happening in my backyard. They may not be the latest and greatest but each used technology in new ways an a meaningful scale and is being used by normal people outside the marketing or tech world (sorry FourSquare.),
Twelp Force
Just as you prefer a human over a phone tree, online it's nice to connect with a human rather than be directed to a FAQ page. LOVE this one.
Monocle
Firslty, it's a magazine, that's a fashion brand, that's a podcast, that's a FT column that's a retail shop. Seamless multi-media integration. Extraordinary clean and throughout design values. Plus a club like feel between editorial recommendations and relevant advertisers.
The Guardian
Firstly, most newspapers remain operationally profitable. Secondly, they have been risk taking digitally for years. The Guardian has been brilliantly of late for many well talked about reasons, and their editor acknowledges the last thing they should be is a newspaper.
The Peak
Radio, no matter the efficiencies of mono-content by a leviathan owner, is ultimately a local medium. This Vancouver rock station is serving as an music incubator taking 20 unsigned upcoming bands to develop, foster and launch. The creation of music is the trans-media content.
Politico
Another transmedia media entity, what's not to love about these. Politico was founder by former Washington DC heaveyweights. It's timely, informed and fair in it reportage. Real fair, not Fox fair. A window into the insiders world of politics accessible to anyone that uses whatever medium is best for telling a given story.
Fiat Eco Drive
This is a branded utility, social content, product design, and baked in marketing device at its finest. Gorgeous.
Six Beers of Seperation
A simple premise - find your dream in 6 beers - well told through good storyline and strong production values.
Vancouver Sun - SCAN Sports Page
Developed by our local daily and crowd source news innovator Now Public, sports buzz incorporates real time online activity with sprots coverage.
Kindle
Proves digital screens don't have to be garish and can be readible for hours by taking cues from 100's of years of experience from paper. When this goes poster size with real time feed, outdoor advertising might regain some dignity.
Lululemon
A yoga brand with deep community roots building deep loyalty throughout North America. While the little advertising they do is rather hokey, passionate ambassadors and knowledgeable loyal staff who live the yoga lifestyle are it's marketing. The design lab / retail store finally brings the retail experience up to what a brand this meaningful deserves.
Gap - Born To Fit
Need to rebrand. Start with the product. Jump feet in to the social world by using Facebook as your platform for a campaign site, or whatever we want to call a microsite this week.
Newspaper Club
Like radio's benefit of being local, newspaper's benefit is that it's well printed on newsprint. Horrendously cheap, portable, designable and loved.
AdHack
Crowdsourced advertising really excites me. Not so much as a way to develop more scripts for TV ads but to attract people from diverse backgrounds to come up with a completely different way of advertising we've never imagined or model to manage the tremendous complexity of the trans-media world.
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